Ruth Super is a versatile inclusive designer with over 20 years of graphic, interior, and architectural design experience.
Having graduated from Liverpool John Moores University/Polytechnic with a Graphic Design degree in the UK where Ms. Super majored in advertising and visual communication. Ruth moved to the US. Ruth’s first job in the US was for The Coffee Connection as their Graphic Design and Visual Communications Coordinator. During Coffee Connection’s rapid expansion she became responsible not only for the Visual merchandising and Graphics but was also pulled into the interior design and prototyping team involved in the design of the new stores. In 1994 after Starbucks bought out the Coffee Connection, Ms. Super set up SuperGraphics! And began a transition from 2D to 3D design. This move lead Ms. Super to enroll in a Master's program in Interior Design where she later transferred to the Master's of Architecture at the Boston College of Architecture. Ruth graduated with a commendation from the BAC in 2008.
During the concurrent practice BAC program, she gained both her Interiors and Architectural training at The Interiors Group, ADD Inc., Levi and Wong, Nashawtuc Architects Inc., and Bruner-Cott Associates. She covered a wide range of built environments from hospitals, police and fire stations, schools to corporate offices.
In 2009 having attended an Institute for Human Centered Design presentation Ruth felt the call to apply her design experience to Inclusive Design at IHCD. Ruth worked at the Institute for Human Centered for Design as an Interiors, Wayfinding and Exhibit Accessibility and Inclusive Design Consultant on national and international projects such as university campuses, museums, schools, hospital, and corporate offices. Highlights being the 911 Museum NY, Canadian Museum for Human Rights, Center for Civil and Human Rights, Atlanta, Blue Cross Blue Shield Corporate Offices, Massachusetts School of Art and Design, Harvard Medical School, and an Emergency Shelters Assessment Project for the Mayors Office of Emergency Management. As a team member, Ms. Super has also used her skills to develop the ADA Checklist for Existing Facilities, Massachusetts Wayfinding Standards for DCAMM, and the Massachusetts Cultural Council UP Program. Ruth was on the IHCD design team that won the Boston Society for Architects William D. Smith Award for Accessible Design and Historic Preservation. Ruth was the lead designer on several published Inclusive Design projects as well as an innovative new construction home for a person with ALS. Ruth has presented on Inclusive Design and Wayfinding at conferences and courses in Boston.
Ruth Super currently has her own design office concentrating on Inclusive Design and consults for IHCD on Cultural and Higher Ed projects. Ruth has co-chaired Women in Design Awards of Excellence for the Boston Society of Architects and has been on the jury from 2009-2019. Ruth teaches a summer Intensive Inclusive Design course in the Design for Human Health Masters Program at the Boston Architectural College and has been a guest lecturer and co-taught a Human Factors and Universal Design course at the school of Art and Design @ Suffolk University.